THE PRECIOUS JUICE

American blacks change opinion on O.J. Simpson

Majority now say murder charges true

(CNN) — Twenty years after the start of the O.J. Simpson murder case, attitudes towards Simpson and towards race relations in the country have dramatically changed, according to a new national poll.

Monday night’s release of the CNN/ORC International survey comes just a few days before 20th anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, the former football star and actor’s ex-wife, and of Ronald Goldman. The case against Simpson and the ensuing more than eight-month-long criminal trial, dubbed the “trial of the century,” engrossed the nation. Simpson was eventually acquitted.

According to CNN polling in 1994, a large majority of whites thought Simpson was guilty, but six in ten African-Americans believed that the charges against Simpson were not true, a belief that persisted throughout the murder trial and its aftermath.